one big game of chess
by augustush waters
Summary: "why do we act like two is safe... like- like the district matters?" "because we're pawns, clovers." She needed him. He was already dead. one-shot


**clatoooooo! yesh i finally did a not-au one-shot about them! oh, and i changed the dialogue from the movie and book when cato dies, so don't yell at me. i don't own thg.**

**summary**

**"why do we act like two is safe... like- like the district matters?" "because we're pawns, clovers." She needed him. He was already dead. one-shot**

he snuck into her room on the last night.

they weren't supposed to be this close. they were just district partners right?

careers had no time for relationships and love. it made them weak. and a career could be anything but weak.

and yet, they were both so fragile- no matter how tough the extrerior.

"hi." he whispered as he lay down on her silken sheets, taking in everything.

the lights were on and she was just staring at the ceiling, her chest rising and falling with every breath she took.

"why do we pretend?" she flipped onto her side, facing him. "why do we act like two is safe... like- like the district matters?"

"because we're pawns, clovers," he sighed. "pawns in one big game of chess."

she exhaled, contemplating if being a pawn was better than being a rook or night or bishop...

{maybe in some crazy way it was. and maybe she was thinking about it all wrong.}

"we're going to change, cato," she said. "the games are going to change us. just like brutus and enobaria and that drunk from twelve."

"maybe," he shrugs. "but maybe we'll die."

she chuckles. death in district two isn't a big deal. it happens all the time.

{and most of the time there isn't time for mourning because there's always another death.

you don't seem important in the uncomplicated way that say... president snow was important.}

"you talk about us as if we're one person," she smiles. "why?"

"because i wouldn't be able to live with myself if you died." he says sheepishly.

if there was one thing cato was not, it was shy.

they lay there in silence, planning their deaths.

"i love you." she blurts out. she has no idea why she says it- they're nothing but friends, right?

"i love you too." he doesn't hesitate because he knows he loves her. no need to pretend.

and so they lay there, holding each other, clasping onto the sheets as they try desperately to sleep.

she dies before five.

they don't even know the girl's name but they know she'll live longer.

thresh slowly kills clove, pounding her skull with a rock.

she thrashes and screams, begging for mercy, pleading that she wasn't the one who killed the girl from eleven.

she knows the girl was only twelve and that the one who killed her, marvel, is already dead.

cato rushes into the clearing, chanting her name as if it would stop her from dying.

"clove," he whipsers. "clove clove clove please hang on."

"c-can't," she smiled, blood filling up her mouth. "i-i-i'm g-going to d-die."

her voice cracks and she grins, seemingly happy, and he can't help but cry and smile.

the games aren't a place for emotion or love or kissing or hugging or tears.

she wipes away a single tear as he pleads for her to hold on, for her to stay.

she can't help but smile as the darkness engulfs her.

"go on," he says, blood coming up his throat.

he remembers how she looked when she died- so innocent and pure and he hopes he looks the same when he dies.

"shoot. i'm... dead anyway," he coughs, tightening his grip on the boy, peeta. "isn't that what they want. give them a good show!"

he laughs maniacally, more blood coming up. he feels like he's going to vomit.

peeta puts two fingers to his bloody thigh, drawing liquid, and puts an x on cato's hand.

katniss realizes before he does and then he's falling.

falling falling falling into an endless darkness filled with growls and slobber.

"i'm sorry!" he yells at the mutts as they drag him into the shimmering cornucopia. he sees all of their faces- glimmer's, marvel's, thresh's...

and he feels so tortured- like he's being punished by all of them.

then he sees her. her face on the mutt and cries. "i'm sorry, clove," he whisper-yell-cries. "it's all my fault!"

and then katniss swoops down, bow and arrow in hand, ready to take the shot if he's willing. he utters a single word, and it feels like poetic justice.

"please."


End file.
